Nuclear Politics

Europe / NGO Alliance Calls For Nuclear Knowledge And Technology To Be Kept Inside EU

By David Dalton
31 March 2021

NGO Alliance Calls For Nuclear Knowledge And Technology To Be Kept Inside EU
The Covid-19 pandemic and recent controversies over vaccines have shown the need to keep critical knowledge, capabilities, technologies and infrastructure - including that related to nuclear energy - inside the European Union, an alliance of non-governmental organisations said in a letter to European commission president Ursula von der Leyen.

The Brussels-based weCare alliance, which includes NGOs promoting a technology neutral and very low-carbon energy mix to reduce CO2 emissions and limit climate change, said nuclear energy is a geopolitical challenge, for the European Union and needs to be supported and developed, as is done in many other parts of the world, if a clean, affordable and reliable energy mix for a sustainable European society is to be delivered.

The Covid-19 vaccine crisis highlights the importance for the European Union to have a reliable indigenous supply of energy for the common good. Since the energy must be very low-carbon, nuclear energy is key, the letter said.

“If the European Union does not proactively pursue this route, it will be a recipe for yet another geopolitical failure, and it will not be in the interests of European society as a whole,” weCare said in the letter, which was also addressed to commission vice-president Frans Timmermans, financial affairs commissioner Mairead McGuinness and energy commissioner Kadri Simson.

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